


we're swimming in a hurricane (love is just the same)

by aceofdiamonds



Series: is that such a stretch of the imagination? [17]
Category: Gossip Girl (TV 2007), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:22:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24151267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofdiamonds/pseuds/aceofdiamonds
Summary: “Harry, this is Chuck,” because Chuck doesn’t remember the night Harry punched him and broke his nose. To Chuck’s knowledge the two have never met. “Chuck,” she waves a hand, “Harry.” She knows that Chuck has no doubt done every but of research on Harry Potter and she wonders what opinions he has about Blair ending up with a footballer and living half in England, half away from her beloved New York.Harry glances at Blair again and then holds his hand out. “Hi. I’ve heard a lot about you.”“I can only imagine,” Chuck says, inclines his head, and Blair lets out a sigh when Harry’s hand returns to his side, blood nowhere to be seen. “Congratulations, Blair -- you're glowing. And I’ve read about Waldorf Designs, I always knew you would get everything you ever dreamed.”blair and harry bump into chuck in the middle of new york
Relationships: Harry Potter/Blair Waldorf
Series: is that such a stretch of the imagination? [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/90682
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	we're swimming in a hurricane (love is just the same)

**Author's Note:**

> so, to everyone’s surprise including my own, i’m rewatching gossip girl for the first time since 2013 and it’s helping me fill in the gaps in my blair knowledge 
> 
> blair’s feelings about chuck are all over the place bc my feelings are all over the place. don’t worry, i still believe chuck is the worst
> 
> title is from thinking of you by air traffic controller!!

  
  
  
  


When Blair was 21, Bart Bass fell off a building, died a second time, and consequently Blair did the only thing she’s ever regretted. 

She married Chuck Bass. 

She thought she loved him, and maybe she had, in that twisted sort of love where neither of them were ever actually happy. It’s easy to look back now and feel sympathy towards stupid young Blair, who thought she knew it all. 

Of course, it ended 10 months later in the messiest divorce the Upper East Side had seen in years, and, to escape the city where her ex-husband owned half the buildings, Blair had fled to Italy. 

No, not  _ fled _ \- she’d been meaning to visit Italy for a while. 

And then a man had fallen from the sky and here she is — on her way to a new life just as the ink dries on the divorce papers. 

  
  


.

  
  


In a move surprising everyone, Chuck had faded from the city as soon as Blair had put down her pen and given him one last sweet smile. His business is still booming, of course, that Bart court case pulling in everyone who loves a drama, but he conducts his meetings in his suites, in his various offices, and he socialises with no one from the old crowd. 

So three years go by before Blair even sets eyes on him again, a long time to not see someone who made you the person you are today. 

And then Harry punches him. 

  
  


.

  
  


It’s another year and oh, this is the big one. 

This one comes from Blair’s need for BBQ flavoured chips, a pregnancy craving outwith her usual food palette, and she waits on the sidewalk as Harry goes into a bodega.

Pregnancy has stretched nine months out into what feels like years and years, Blair’s bump growing along with her anxiety that this one ends like the last one did, gone in a burst of violence, unable to say goodbye. She runs her hand over it constantly, lets Harry or Molly Weasley do whatever spell they want to check everything is safe, calling her mother to ask question after question, and she ignores the voice in her head that tells her this is all too good to be true, she doesn’t deserve this. 

He looks at her hand on her stomach and she remembers standing in front of him telling him she wished the baby was his, remembers the back of car careering off the road, her hand in his, remembers waking up in a hospital bed and feeling empty and looking for him. She meets his eyes. 

“Chuck,” and oh, his name doesn’t sound so bad in her mouth after all this time. 

Chuck inclines his head. “Blair. It’s been a long time.”

And that’s an understatement for new beginnings. She swallows, hates that she’s reverting back to her old ways, no one ever doing this to her like Chuck fucking Bass. “So how have you been?” She doesn’t say that no one mentions his name, that the few times he’s spoken about it’s as though he’s died and the Empire is haunted. 

He opens his mouth but Harry comes out of the shop and he closes it again. 

“Blair, I got you two packets because you’ll ask --” Harry looks up from the crisps, sees Chuck, and looks to Blair. There’s a lot of looking, a lot of tight mouths, and Blair wishes suddenly that her waters would break a couple of weeks early. 

“Harry, this is Chuck,” because Chuck doesn’t remember the night Harry punched him and broke his nose. To Chuck’s knowledge the two have never met. “Chuck,” she waves a hand, “Harry.” She knows that Chuck has no doubt done every but of research on Harry Potter and she wonders what opinions he has about Blair ending up with a footballer and living half in England, half away from her beloved New York.

Harry glances at Blair again and then holds his hand out. “Hi. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“I can only imagine,” Chuck says, inclines his head, and Blair lets out a sigh when Harry’s hand returns to his side, blood nowhere to be seen. “Congratulations, Blair -- you're glowing. And I’ve read about Waldorf Designs, I always knew you would get everything you ever dreamed.”

“You know me,” and she smiles, breathes. “I wasn’t going to rest until I became someone they wondered how I did it all.”

Harry laughs beside her and she nudges him in the ribs. She watches Chuck’s eyes follow the diamond on her finger, the gold band on Harry's, brow furrowed although she knows he definitely knew -- she finds Chuck’s hand, sees it bare, and feels a burst of sympathy she never expected to feel for him again. Maybe the married life isn’t for Chuck Bass, a mistress to his empires. “They’ll always wonder about you, Blair,” he says, that raspy voice that she waited so long to hear i love you in.

She realises now that she’s never told Harry about one of the darkest nights in her life, when she knocked on Jack Bass’ door, and found that Chuck had sold her to the devil, and she wonders how that was her life, how that was what she saw as love. Her smile becomes brittle, almost shatters, until Harry puts her arm around her shoulder and, again, she breathes. She feels a burst of agony for her younger self, who had no idea love could look anything different from pain and competition and drama drama drama.

“So,” Harry says then and Blair and Chuck look at him, apprehension at what he could possibly say, but -- “We have that lunch with your mum, Blair.”

“We do,” Blair works on her smile as she lies through her teeth. God look at her, she just thought she was above lies and games, but her hands slips into Harry’s and squeezes a thanks. “Pleasure as always, Chuck.”

And Chuck does one of his rare laughs that even she barely saw. “Enjoy your new life, Blair,” which is close enough to a threat that Blair senses Harry tense up but he follows it up with a sincere “I’m glad I bumped into you. Things ended badly with us and for that I’ll always be sorry but you were --,” he stops, glances at the ground, at Harry, and Blair wonders suddenly if he’s ever been told about the other side of her new husband. “-- you were the the best part of my life and I wish you well.”

Which is typical of Chuck Bass to mess her around one more time. 

She blinks in surprise, hand brushing over her stomach, once more thinking of that lost baby, knows he’s thinking of it too, and then she manages a nod. “Thanks, Chuck. I hope you get whatever you’re looking for,” and then, because she’s hormonal and thinking of the past, she adds, “I’ll see you around.” 

They all move on, Blair looping her arm through Harry’s as they walk along the street, Chuck watching them go, no bruises, no blood. 

.

After a block Blair leads them over to a bench and manoeuvres herself onto it, suddenly exhausted at her brush with the past. Harry, silent for most of the exchange, clears his throat and asks, “How do you feel?”

And Blair takes the time to think about it. “Is this how closure feels?”

“I think you can’t mistake closure for any other feeling,” Harry says, somewhat wisely. He opens her crisps, makes her eat a handful while she’s still lost in thought. 

“You were very restrained,” she says. 

“Well, you didn’t like me doing what I did last time. And,” he adds, “you had it all under control.” 

“You would’ve hated the Blair I was with Chuck,” she realises, dropping her head onto his shoulder. “I couldn’t stand myself.”

“Serena’s stuck around. And Nate and Dan and Dorota.”

“Because no one else could deal with us,” Blair says dryly. “We were going to run into him at some point, the fact that it’s taken us this long seems almost suspicious,” because, again, they’re not counting Lily’s party when they arrived, threw punches, modified everyone’s memories, and then left. “Didn’t we seem civilised?”

“A model guide on divorced couples,” Harry agrees, kissing her cheek, his hand brushing her hair back from her face. 

That night in the Empire looms in Blair’s mind and she shuts her eyes, banishes it to her past life. She breathes in deeply, focuses on the warmth of Harry’s body against hers, the life growing inside her, the burst of family she now has in England. “The baby’s kicking,” she sighs, running a hand over her bump. “It’s almost time.”

Harry’s fingers thread through hers and they feel their baby pushing against Blair, restless to emerge into the world. People glance at them on their way past, this young couple on the brink of a family of their own, no idea of either of their pasts, and Blair pauses in this moment, remembers it for the future.

When her daughter asks her how love feels she’ll tell her about the sun on her face, the presence of Harry beside her, and that unwavering, unconditional, belief and support. She’ll tell her it’s about love and respect and feeling so content and safe she could believe in magic, even without the proof in sparks and jinxes. 

To use Harry’s words, it’s something you couldn’t mistake for any other feeling. 

  
  


.

  
  


When Blair was 22 she made the decision to leave New York for the summer, one which her friends tried to talk her out of for fear of losing ground in the divorce, but when she landed in Italy and took a walk along the marina she knew it was the best decision she’d ever made.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
